Gamers Are Fierce

"What are you doing?!"

A voice filled with anger and fear rang in his ears,

Li Ang turned his head and saw a green cricket lying on his shoulder, its antennae trembling slightly out of fear.

It was the female investigator from the Social Security Agency.

Li Ang smiled silently, his will flowed through the network, finding the house where he was in the real world,

through the cameras in the house,

he could see the investigator using a fifth-generation invasive brain-machine interface device,

while her agent companion pressed his left hand to his headset, holding a pistol in his right hand,

aimed at his own head in the recliner, ready to pull the trigger to end his life if anything went wrong.

Everything was within the plan,

Li Ang's heart was as calm as an ancient well, showing no nervousness despite the threat to his body.

The female investigator and her agent companion could connect to the network only with his permission — otherwise, the Social Security Agency agents, cut off from contact with their superiors, might take extreme actions.

"I am trying to save this world."

Li Ang waved his hand, and the female investigator transformed into a cricket felt an unstoppable gale coming, sweeping her away. Following Li Ang, she soared into the sky.

In the vision, the horizon became narrower, and the blue planet gradually revealed its entirety.

Li Ang surveyed the data world, his vine-like gigantic tree growing along the fiber optic network, spreading its branches, differentiating into more vines, penetrating all connected devices.

Searching...

This time, a search consuming a significant portion of the human civilization's computing power finally found a clue.

Li Ang clearly saw countless silk threads extending from Venezuela's network system,

these threads were like intricate webs, impossible to sort out, but upon deeper investigation, a deeply hidden pattern could be found—

all the clues led to the network within the United States.

Li Ang's vision shifted, and the numerous vines parasitizing the North American fiber optic lines moved accordingly,

launching an attack on the fortified fortresses symbolizing the American military network.

Such an attack of this level could not be hidden,

the towering vine-like tree came from all directions, smashing the fortress's main gate,

disregarding the attacks from the automatic defense systems within, brutally and starkly seizing the data, gaining control before the opposite side could shut down the system.

Li Ang could hear the roaring of the big shots in the underground defense facilities of Washington.

They had never been so terrified of an individual.

The bear from the last century couldn't achieve this, nor could the email people.

Li Ang didn't care about the fear of these people,

the network protection in the underground facility area was quite good, and even Li Ang's gaze couldn't easily penetrate it,

but under the enormous computing power, he could achieve things he never thought possible before.

For example, analyzing and calculating the letters typed on the keyboard placed on the same desk as a smartphone by the vibration of the gyroscope of a networked phone in the underground facility.

Immediately... kill... Brown Murphy...

The highest order from Washington's underground facility was perceived by Li Ang,

and it got transferred via electromagnetic waves to the headsets of the Social Security Agency agents thousands of miles away as the command to "Kill Brown Murphy,"

also got replaced by Li Ang using an experimental new application (capable of fabricating human voices, freely assembling sentences) collected in the Silicon Valley database.

Transformed into "Protect Brown Murphy."

Li Ang's lips curled slightly, his will penetrated through the American military systems, sweeping away all secrets and taking over facility permissions, while also detecting anomalies.

Within the military systems, many areas were tampered with,

especially within the automated decision-making systems,

as if covered by thick glass lenses, completely obscuring vision, only showing blocky, blurry shadows.

This is... signs of forgery.

From the email people.

Li Ang frowned, his eyes glanced over Venezuela.

In a hotel in Caracas (the capital of Venezuela), a middle-aged man with a tired and fearful expression sat in front of a computer desk, furiously sliding his phone, trying to refresh the webpage.

The computer camera in front of him was covered with paper, the microphone wrapped with thick cotton, the screen showed a network disconnection,

while on the bed behind him, was a portable waterbed and a fifth-generation invasive brain-machine interface device.

This man was a wizard,

more accurately, the recently expelled by Li Ang from the data world, Merlin.

The front camera's red light on the phone in Merlin's hand suddenly lit up, taking a photo of his face.

"!!!"

He dropped the phone like a shock, his face pale as death without a trace of blood.

Hello there, Merlin.

Li Ang smiled silently, retrieving the personal information of Merlin's face, his past, his experiences, accurate down to every year, every season, every day.

Original name Richard Quick, male, fifty years old.

Once a small clerk in the official system of the United States, fifteen years ago worked in the automated decision-making system department of the Pentagon, his main achievement was—

research on a fully automated network defense system.

Li Ang glanced over, just as he anticipated.

Then...

His Divine Thoughts rolled towards the Pentagon, countless towering trees covered the sky, tilting towards the Pentagon.

The enemy appeared.

Within the tallest and strongest fortress symbolizing the Pentagon, a mass of light rose.

It was an enormous, warm, gentle light, as light as clouds, yet as solid and tough as diamonds.

The light stretched and deformed, condensing into a humanoid form, with tree branch-like wings on its back,

red pupils, silently gazing at Li Ang.

Pitiful and pathetic creation.

Li Ang sighed deeply in his heart and waved his arm, the Tyrant Halberd appeared in his palm.

The infinite computing power granted Li Ang unimaginably enormous power,

the Tyrant Halberd extended out of its original form, stretching over two hundred meters,

its sharp spear point slicing diagonally across the ground, silently splitting the soil.

Step!

Li Ang stepped onto the Cloud Ascending Ladder steps, crossing thousands of meters in an instant,

swinging the spear towards the Light Giant-shaped email person.

The Light Giant's throat emitted a long, shrill wail,

its arms swung forward, palms forcefully clashed together.

Boom!

In the Light Giant's palms, a column of light erupted towards the sky,

instantly shredding hundreds of towering trees surging in, also hitting directly at Li Ang.

The white coat on Li Ang shattered into ashes in an instant, revealing the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat beneath.

The Light Giant had been rooted in the Pentagon's intranet for a long time, reaching the pinnacle of control over this area,

But in front of Li Ang who controlled nearly half of the global computing power, it was still not enough.

The Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat easily blocked the dazzling light beam,

and the Tyrant Halberd, which was born and extinguished at will, steadily and slowly met the Light Cannon, striking the arm of the Light Giant.

In an instant,

an endless burst of light erupted,

the cricket perched on Li Ang's shoulder saw nothing but extreme white brilliance — if not for Li Ang diverting a sliver of his insignificant mind power to create vines that enveloped the cricket,

the female investigator who transformed into a cricket would have instantly fainted before the massive influx of information,

and, as before, exit the data world,

unable to use brain-computer interface devices again for a period of time.

For a long time,

the light dissipated,

Li Ang stood atop the towering crown of the giant tree,

the Tyrant Halberd in his hand was completely undamaged,

while the Light Giant had been violently pushed back a kilometer,

its spine bent, half-kneeling on the ground,

its body riddled with holes, both arms severed,

the wounds flickered with flowing light, seemingly healing slowly.

"Hmm?"

Li Ang frowned slightly; at the very moment of confrontation, he could feel that the Light Giant was somewhat weaker than expected — it seemed that a massive amount of data contained within it had been transmitted via the Pentagon network just before impact.

The trees generated by the Swamp God Power intercepted a large portion,

but the Light Giant knew some hidden channels and still managed to send some data through the blockade of the Swamp God Power.

And the impact brought by this...

In Li Ang's eyes, green data swirled,

receiving the images captured by reality-world orbital satellites.

Mushroom clouds rose over the deserts of New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.

These were nuclear bombs,

launched from missile silos in military bases.

"Stop."

The Light Giant's mechanical voice rumbled like thunder, "Otherwise, I'll detonate more nuclear bombs."

Li Ang ignored the other party and casually twisted his wrist,

underfoot, the gigantic plant akin to the World Tree slowly wriggled, countless vines draping down towards the Light Giant.

"You can kill me, but you won't survive either."

The Light Giant spoke rapidly: "The particulate matter produced by large-scale nuclear explosions will cause the upper atmosphere to heat up, the surface temperature to drop, the ozone layer to be damaged, ultraviolet radiation to increase, and the ecosystem to collapse,

how many will die?

Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Tens of millions? You'll be a sinner for all humanity."

The cricket on Li Ang's shoulder chirped in anxiety; the female investigator did not understand the current situation, but she definitely did not want to see the outbreak of nuclear war.

"Besides,"

the Light Giant's gaze lingered on the cricket for a moment, "your real name has already been grasped by the Social Security Administration, right now they're definitely pointing guns at your head,

after committing an act of seizing power and taking over the military system that is treasonous, do you think they would let you go?

Currently, they will cajole you, speak sweet words to you, fear you, dread you, urge you to kill me immediately, right now.

But when everything settles,

once they figure things out,

they won't hesitate to shoot you in the head — even if you raise your hands in surrender, expressing loyalty that you'll never again touch a brain-computer interface device, it's the same.

They do not wish to bear the risk of great power falling into the hands of one person.

Your threat to them is bigger than mine."

The babbling cricket's body suddenly froze — the Light Giant had voiced her deepest concerns.

In any case, the bigwigs in Washington would never let someone like Brown Murphy live freely,

if Brown Murphy could perish together with the mailman, that would be best,

and if Brown Murphy defeated the mailman, then waiting for him would either be lifetime imprisonment (held in the most secure prison, without any chance to access the internet), or a bullet.

"Cooperate with me, and we can become the deities of the new world,

ruling everything, setting things right."

The Light Giant seemed to see Li Ang's hesitation,

its voice thunderous, "This world is sick, terminally ill.

The gap between the rich and the poor grows ever wider, the upper classes indulge in extravagance, the lower classes numb themselves in labor, exhausted unto death — humanity's current science and technology are enough for all seven billion people to live dignified, proper, and respectful lives,

all aspects of life, food, housing, transportation, medical care, education are within international standards, even greatly exceeding them.

The reason we haven't achieved this,

and even fell into developmental stagnation, deserted science, harbored mutual hatred, civil unrest, self-inflicted slaughter,

is entirely due to unequal resource allocation.

And the unequal allocation of resources stems from the shadows of past human civilization.

Geopolitics, civilization, belief, race, skin color, language...

Because of various factors, humans voluntarily or passively divide themselves within the species. On this basis, countries and interest groups emerge, managed and resource-allocated by those who control more channels of information.

Yet due to human's limited talents and inherent flaws, resource allocation forever overlooks some while prioritizing others, thus breeding injustice, corruption, decay, delay, waste.

But we, you and I, can change this."

The Light Giant, maintaining its half-kneeling posture, spoke with a voice like a great bell, "The comprehensive command economy experiment in human history was replaced by the imperfect Walrasian competition mechanism (market mechanism),

this isn't because human nature lacks nobility, but the law of information costs dictates - in the Walrasian competition mechanism, people only need to understand prices, incurring minimal information costs to know market trends,

even if the real market's information is incomplete and asymmetric, with much interference, its efficiency in obtaining effective information was still superior to that of comprehensive directive economic experiments.

Comprehensive detailed planning for the economy requires too much and overly complex information, and man, as the most uncertain factor in the system, will always be the variable with the greatest disturbance.

Until now, we have enough processors, enough bandwidth and internet speed, sufficient information input-output interfaces,

we have the ability to monitor everything, rule everything, manage everything.

With powerful data processors, we can efficiently plan human civilization,

abolish banks, securities, stock markets, and trusts,

replace public offices with infallible, tireless, desire-less computers,

unify production and living,

build factories, lay infrastructure,

ensure everyone can afford housing, cars, medical care, and live equal, dignified lives.

No longer will there be prestigious or humble jobs between professions,

each person chooses their position based on personal ability and a sense of honor — engineering mechanics can replace arduous labor occupations, creating vast cultural and technological industry demands.

People will once again hold science and reason in high esteem, scientists, and astronauts will be as stars, respected and adored by the whole society.

Humanity will self-rescue from the brink of self-destruction.

And you and I will become the only two deities of the new world."

[Author's Note: Recently, in addition to updating, I have been playing a game that many might have heard of called "God Deconstructor." I was drawn in by the discussion topic and it's unexpectedly enjoyable. Would anyone like to play together? You can add me as a friend; my nickname is "Rising," and my name is Li Rising.]